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Colony Treatment
OF THE
Insane and Other Defectives
—BY—
DR. P. L. MURPHY
MORGANTON, N. C.
Read Before the Meeting of the N. C. Medical Association
June, 1906, Charlotte, N. C.
(REPRINT FROM CAROLINA MEDICAL JOURNAL.)
Colony Treatment of the Insane and Other Defectives
The subject of this paper might becalled "Employment as a means oftreating and caring for the insane andother defectives" the colony being themeans of finding agreeable and profitablework for the inmates.
To many of you a description ofwhat is meant by the "colony treatment"is needed to fully understand thesubject.
As the expression is used in thispaper, and as it is generally understood,it means the erection of buildingssome distance from the central hospitalplant and placing farm working patientsthere, to be under the controland management of the hospital officers.
FIRST BUILDING AT THE COLONY
Without discussing the origin of theidea, and with no reference to Gheel, it[Pg 2]is sufficient to say it was begun in Germanyin the sixties, and that it hasslowly found its way into other countries.
THE COLONY BUILDINGS
Such a colony was established inconnection with the Morganton Hospitalthree years ago, or rather it wasready for occupancy about that time. Ittook several years of talk to get the ideaadopted, and as many more to get thecolony built. The plan of conducting itby the hospital authorities was largelyexperimental, and was made to suit thepeople of Western North Carolina, butit is, after all, a modification of the originalGerman conception.
The first building was for 30 menwith rooms for a man and his family,the man to have general supervision ofthe place and the wife to cook and dothe household work. Afterwardsa small cottage was built for the[Pg 3]manager and his family, and his roomswere used for patients and later stillanother building was erected so thatnow 75 patients can be accommodated.It would have been much better to havelimited the rooms to 30 as first intended.No single colony plant for the insaneshould much exceed that number.As many colonies as are needed may behad if land is sufficient, the number dependingon the size of the hospital, asonly a certain proportion of patients,about 25 per cent., can thus be caredfor, or at the outside 40 per cent.
PATIENTS WORKING RASPBERRIES
The colony buildings, outhouses andsurroundin